Paul Haggis’ new film, “Third Person,” is filled with troubled characters engaged with the arts: there are a pair of authors played by Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde, a painter played by James Franco, a design thief played by Adrien Brody and a former actress played by Mila Kunis.

All of these characters are, to varying degrees, haunted by demons of guilt and remorse. But Haggis, the Oscar-winning writer and director of “Crash” (2004), isn’t afraid that audiences will find any shades of autobiography in the film.

“I think it’s our job to investigate our own lives, put it on screen, and not worry about what we reveal about ourselves and whether people either understand or misunderstand,” Haggis said.

“I mean, absolutely there are parts of my life in this movie. Everything in this movie is true, it’s just that none of it happened in the way that I’m telling the story. You may recognize me more in the James Franco or Mila Kunis character than you would in the Liam Neeson character. But they’re all parts of my life, that’s my job.”

A Sony Pictures Classics release, “Third Person” is now playing in select theaters, including the Clairidge Cinema in Montclair, the Montgomery Cinemas in Skillman, the Towne Stadium 16 in Egg Harbor Township and the AMC Loews Monmouth Mall 15 in Eatontown.

The film is made of three thematically-linked story lines and centered on Neeson’s performance as a Pulitzer-winning author struggling to craft his latest novel. The film, nearly two and a half hours, never provides easy answers, and culminates in a reveal that has been divisive among critics and audiences.

“I think it’s going to confound a few people, and has confounded a few people,” Haggis said of his film. “And, of course they won’t say they’re confounded, they just say it’s a bad movie.”

Haggis discussed the debt “Third Person” owes to European filmmakers of the 1960s and ’70s, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

“I guess this is my small and poor homage to them, that you can tell a story that doesn’t have all the answers necessarily. Actually, it has the answers in it, but you have to go out of the way and think about it, you have to sort of argue about it with your friends. But, it leaves you with some sort of visceral reaction to it.”

One in a ‘Million’

This year marks the 10th anniversary of both “Crash” – which earned Haggis Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 2006 Academy Awards – and “Million Dollar Baby,” which earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Haggis, as well as winning a Best Director Oscar for Clint Eastwood and Best Picture in 2005.

Haggis, who also wrote Eastwood’s 2006 World War II companion films “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima,” discussed his boxing drama’s path to the big screen.

“I wrote ‘Crash’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby’ on spec, and then tried for four years to sell them or to get someone interested in making them,” he recalled. “And, I got a little bit of money to do ‘Crash,’ and when I was in the middle of that Clint Eastwood became interested in ‘Million Dollar Baby.’

“Initially, I was going to direct ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ and had sent it to him to act in, but I think my producing partner never bothered to tell him that there was a director attached. And so, he said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to do it,’ at which point I had a decision to make. And, it was a really hard decision, because you develop something, you hold onto it for four or five years afterwards, you get a little bit of money to make it, I had Hilary (Swank) at that point and Morgan (Freeman).

“It was a really hard decision, but then I sat back and went, ‘If Clint Eastwood makes this movie, he’ll make a hell of a movie.’ ‘Unforgiven’ is one of my favorite films of all time. So, as soon as I set my ego aside and wondered what was best for the movie, I knew it was him. It was a tough decision, but I’m so glad I made it.”